Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-03-26
CALIFORNIA EDITORS.
PRENTICE MuLFORC TELLS OF
THEIR PeRILS AND PLEASURES.
California and Her Eurai Press During
the Civil WaI Guarding an Once
Against an Attack that Never Game.
An Amusing Typographical Biunder.

T An Amusing Typographical Biunder.
Special Correspondence
BOsrON March - On looking back fine
&c my surprise that have had a cOnsiderabl,
and varied experience IN editing country
papers. especially ~ California More Otter
my commission a. editor ha, been IA tempo
rary one, having been called to the chan
while the responsible editor slid down Ia Sar
Francisco ON "pasear" A ~pas.-ar" is from
the Spanish and means in American that tht
editor has 500 or S9u ahead of the hound,
wherewIth he proposes To visit San Francisco
and refresh and recruit his tired brain with
whatever San Francisco can give him.
think these alterations IN editorial pulplts q
good practice They give the man left tenn
pnrarily in charge an opportunity TO ventilate
his peculiar ideas, and in cases give the editor
considerable 10 do on coming back TO repair
the damage and quiet the sensation the tenn
porary man has made among the readers
Country editing grows more savage as il
moves westward | remember twenty odd
years ago being shown Il closet in the sancturI
Of a California weekly paper fun of rifles
shot guns and revOlvers That was in Mari.
po>a county The pen there and then did no,
seem mightier than the sword The editors
pen in up country" California was often
tipped with personality, invective, abuse
and gall. Especially was this the case during
the war. When in the town of Sonora, Tuo-
lumne county, the Republican and Democratic
organs appeared everybody looked for a row.
Party prejudices and party sympathies
were brought mnch closer together than i'll
our northern towns and villages In Califr-
mis- h.
between those of northern and southern
birth The state at one time WAS "on the
fence" and came near tipping over into the
southern fold There was blood on the face
of the moon" all the time in those days The
man who most lowered as an editor was he
who could handle the pistol as quickly as the
pen. II did not matter much il he could
handle the pen at all so that be
could the pistol, and hired some
one TO drive a stinging quill for him. Per
sonal abuse was what the boys on both sides
wanted to read. The interest in an argument
was intensified by the possibility that the
principals after eHhausting words would have
recourse to powder and lead
And so they did. A leading Republican
editor went after his man while he was eating
his dinner i'll Sonora restaurant He never
finished that dinner. The fighting editor then
went To his office. got his shot gun, went into
the main street and iared the whole Demo
cratic party to take him. The Democratic
party did not take him. The sheriff did
But that was all. The editor lived on. The
man he shot died. In a fortnight the affair
bad lost its freshness news, and the town,
like the barber, was in thought singing out
Next!
On the night after the news OF Lincolns
assassination reached California the office
of the Democratic paper in Sonora was
filled with Inen armed with shotguns
and rifles, for the report ran To the effect
that the Republicans intended to sack the
Democrats office. l was one Of the armed
men on this occasion Never was there q
more miserable defender of Lost cause -
Ny mind was made up on one point and that
was to discharge myself from that office on
the first discharge of guns. That was long
and weary night waiting for the attack which
never came. In imagination it was coming
every minute. l think the bravest
among US was glad 1t did not come
l passed part of the time in trying to
cipher out whether courage WAS q merely
physical or a mental quality. decided Ill
VI b1e DSNuu.c tutre WIS u
demij john in the Office furnished with ammu-
milton for the occasion. 1t contained con-
densed vegetable fluid food, an extract from
corn. Most of us favored at that time this
kind of vegetable diet. As l drew nutriment
from the demjohn it recuperated my body
and made it stronger. As it became stronger
felt temporarily more inclined to meet tho
possible foe-for few minutes But as the
effect of this nourishment wore off | felt
less and less inclined to meet the foe,
unless on friendly terms. The condensed
corn extract seemed to affect first the mental,
and as 1t changed the mental from cowardice
to courage its effect seemed TO spread to the
physical and brace that up also
A few years after this | found myself
running a Democratic campaign paper in
the center of a large agricultural section.
The farmers or "ranchers" coming in on mar
ket DAYS were wont to pay their respects to
the editor Of their party organ They had q
good deal To say without saying much after
all They had ideas they wished
generously enough TO give me, but
the trouble was so many words hal
accumulated about the idea, that it be-
came difficult TO discover the idea from the
words. notice the same tendency at times
in some peoples writings and feel also at
other times such an affection myself My
patrons had rather vague ideas as to the
nature of the editors duties They assumed
for ME an ability to write in a single day the
selected story OH the outside Of the paper md
all the editorial and se!s tied matter besides
might have taken this as complimentary,
but found they thought even this not much
out Of the bounds of any editors daily work
Indeed, it seemed never to occur to them that
it took much longer to write a story or an
editorial than it did for them TO read it.
found that writing with them was . trihe
lower than post hole digging. II a man was
not bucking at it " all the time, they thought
he "airned his money very easily. My
readers were largely from the southwest
They were easy TO suit in one respect. They
were not particular a. TO grammar or style,
so that it WAS strong and vigorous Once l
published leader in which / alluded
to the nation as staggering under
a load of debt" Possibly the printers in set
ting it up were loaded with the sarae kind Of
inspiration had been while writing it. At
all events, to my Mortified gaze next morning
the nation was represented as Suffering
under load of diet But nothing ever
came of it.
Ny rancher readers Of the San joaquin
spelled through the article and possibly swal-
lowed the passage and took 1t as bearing
some profound and hidden meaning
PRENTICE MILFORD
"
l.tr ~ a Iz.Ii in In,